Privacy

General

Personal information you provide to Farm Credit Canada (FCC) in writing, verbally and through electronic forms and questionnaires on this website, including the online financing request, is collected under the Farm Credit Canada Act and protected by the federal Privacy Act. FCC only collects the kind of personal information needed to administer its programs and activities.

At the point of collection, you’ll be asked for consent and advised of the purpose for which the information is being collected. The personal information you provide us will only be used with your consent and then, only for the purposes to which you’ve agreed.

We will not sell or rent your personal information to anyone. Your personal information will only be disclosed to another party if:

you have consented to the disclosure of that information to another party; or

Your personal information may be shared within FCC (including the FCC AgExpert division), to update your mailing address, send you information about our products or services, or to respond to a request from you. If you ever want your name removed from our mailing list for new product information, just notify us by following the instructions at the end of the promotional material.

In keeping with the Privacy Act, you can request access to any personal information kept about you by FCC. You can also request corrections to this information if you believe it’s inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.

Go to the links below to read about the FCC Privacy Policy, your privacy rights and online privacy.

Privacy policy

Principle 1 – Accountability for Personal Information

Farm Credit Canada is responsible for all personal information under its control. FCC has designated individuals who are accountable for FCC compliance with the Privacy Act of Canada and this policy. These include the Chief Privacy Officer, the Privacy Officer, and privacy partners (champions) from across the country and all FCC business sectors.

Farm Credit Canada makes specific information about its policies and practices relating to the management of personal information available. This is done through printed material, the Farm Credit Canada website and direct communication with customers.

FCC identifies why it collects personal information at or before the time we collect it from individuals.

All individuals who are asked to provide personal information about themselves or someone else are informed:

of the purpose for the collection

whether their response is voluntary or required by law

of any possible consequences if they should refuse to respond (for example: FCC may be unable to process a customer’s loan application if he fails to provide income information)

that individuals have the right to access their personal information and the right to protection of their personal information under the Privacy Act

Through the federal government publication “InfoSource,” FCC publishes the registration number of the personal information bank in which all personal information pertaining to its employees and customers will be retained.

Personal information under the control of FCC will not be used, without the consent of the individual to whom it relates, except:

for the purpose for which Farm Credit Canada obtained or compiled the information or for a use consistent with that purpose; or

for any lawful purpose set out in subsection 8(2) of the Privacy Act . This subsection of the Privacy Act provides exceptions concerning the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in circumstances where informing the individual would result in the collection of inaccurate or misleading information, or defeat the purpose or prejudice the use for which the information is collected. For example, law enforcement agencies have the right to request personal information about FCC customers in order to facilitate criminal investigations. FCC is not authorized to disclose to the customer that such a request has been made. To learn more, follow this link to subsection 8(2) of the Privacy Act.

As a matter of best practice, Farm Credit Canada normally obtains express or implied consent to collect, use or disclose personal information about its customers.

Principle 5 – Limiting Collection of Personal Information

Farm Credit Canada limits its collection of personal information to what relates directly to its identified purposes, operating programs and related activities. FCC has administrative controls in place to ensure that it does not collect any more personal information than is necessary for its programs or related activities.

Whenever possible, FCC collects personal information that it intends to use for administrative purposes directly from the relevant individual, except where the individual authorizes otherwise.

Farm Credit Canada will not use or disclose personal information for purposes beyond why it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or as required by law or regulation.

Personal information will be retained only as long as necessary to fulfil those purposes, or to ensure that the relevant individual has a reasonable opportunity to obtain access to the information.

Principle 7 – Ensuring the Accuracy of Personal Information

Farm Credit Canada takes all reasonable steps to ensure that personal information it uses for an administrative purpose is as accurate, up-to-date and complete as possible. This requirement is intended to minimize the possibility that a decision affecting an individual will be made on the basis of inaccurate, obsolete or incomplete information.

Principle 8 – Ensuring Individual Access to Personal Information

Upon request, Farm Credit Canada will inform an individual of the existence, use and disclosure of his or her personal information, and give access to that information. An individual can challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate.

The federal Access to Information Act also contains provisions relevant to access to personal information. As a federal Crown corporation, FCC is subject to this law as well.

Principle 9 – Ensuring Safeguards for Personal Information

FCC protects personal information with security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

An individual can complain to Farm Credit Canada’s Privacy Officer about FCC’s non-compliance with the Privacy Act. He or she may also complain to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.Your privacy rights

Protecting your privacy

At Farm Credit Canada, we’re committed to taking care of your personal information. We know that as a customer, you trust us to take your privacy seriously.The following explains your rights and what you can expect from us.

The Privacy Act

As a federal Crown corporation, Farm Credit Canada is subject to the Privacy Act. The Act governs the collection, use and retention of all personal information held by federal government institutions. This includes the personal information of all FCC customers. The Act also provides individuals with a “right of access” to information held about them.

What is your personal information?

An individual’s personal information includes:

home address and home phone number

details relating to financial transactions

identifying numbers (employee numbers, SIN, customer number)

race, national or ethnic origin, colour, age or marital status

medical or criminal history

the views or opinions of a third party about the individual

Your rights as a customer

You have the right to view all of your personal information that FCC has on file. If a loan involves more than one individual, the personal information of the other party involved cannot be shared unless the other party grants permission in writing.

You also have the right to view a copy of your entire loan file. In this case, you must make your request in writing to the FCC Privacy Officer.

Rare exceptions

There are rare instances where FCC may be obligated to release personal information about a customer, such as:

FCC is served with a subpoena

the RCMP presents a warrant or written request for information under the Criminal Code

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) provides a written request under certain sections of the Income Tax Act

In such cases, FCC must provide the information requested and is not authorized to inform the customer that a request for information has been received.

FCC proudly serves Canadian agriculture. We are privileged to have you as a customer. Please be assured that we take our commitment to your privacy to heart.

Online financing request

FCC uses the information you provide through the Online financing request to determine if you are eligible for financing and to determine your creditworthiness. If your financing is approved, we will also use this information for ongoing loan administration. Information such as your date of birth is used to obtain credit reports about you and to ensure those public registrations, which FCC may make concerning your loan, accurately identify you as our borrower.

If your financing request is not approved, FCC may use your information to follow up with you about financing at a later date.

FCC offers programs and services that are based on the needs and interests of our customers. FCC may use your personal information to prepare a customer profile for you, to conduct internal research and to market other FCC products and services to you. Also, FCC may use your personal information to contact you to conduct post loan customer satisfaction/quality assurance surveys.

By submitting an Online Financing request :

You are consenting to FCC conducting a credit check about you. In connection with that check, you consent to FCC sharing your credit information with other banks, financial institutions and trade creditors that you have dealt with in the past.

Your acceptance can also be relied on by those banks, financial institutions and trade creditors as your authorization for them to disclose credit information about you to FCC.

Your acceptance will be consent for FCC to disclose credit information about you to banks, financial institutions and trade creditors in the future if you apply for financing or credit and authorize those institutions to conduct credit checks about you.

Cookies

Each time you visit our website, non-identifying information is automatically collected. This includes information collected through the use of cookies, which are pieces of data a web server creates. There are two types of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies.

A session cookie is a small text file placed on your browser by a web server. It acts as an identification card because it’s unique to you, but can only be read by the server that gave it to you. FCC secure online applications use session cookies to make your online visits easier and improve site navigation by maintaining information from page to page within these applications. Session cookies are deleted from your computer’s hard drive once you close down your web browsing software.

A persistent cookie is more permanent and can be re-read when you return to the site that placed it on your computer. It acts as your identification card and can only be read by the server that gave it to you. At FCC, we use persistent cookies to help us remember which official language you prefer and to find out how visitors access, navigate, and use our website.

We lump together all the information gathered during visits to our website, so you aren’t personally identified in any way. This information helps us monitor how well our website performs, to make improvements along the way.

Under no circumstances will FCC use any type of cookie to:

retrieve any information from your computer that is not part of the cookie we sent to you

write any code, as part of the cookie, that could be harmful to your computer

If you don’t want cookies to be stored on your computer, you can set your browser to refuse all cookies. To do this, go to the Help files of your browser. If you disable your session cookie option you’ll still be able to access our public website, however you might have difficulties accessing any secure services. If you’ve never disabled the session cookie option, it should be enabled by default.

System monitoring

From time to time, FCC may use software programs or other tools to monitor network traffic and/or the security of our website. FCC will not link this information with the identity of individuals visiting our site, unless an attempt to damage the site or breech security is detected or reasonably suspected. In each case, FCC reserves the right to use or disclose personal information to investigate the security breach.

External service providers

FCC uses some external service providers to operate and administer our websites and computer systems. As a result, much of your personal information may be stored on computer systems owned and operated by these outside providers. These service providers are bound by a contract with FCC to treat all personal information they receive in a manner consistent with the provisions of the Privacy Act.

Disclaimer

Since privacy-related issues or requirements are subject to constant change, FCC reserves the right to change this policy from time to time by posting notice on our website. We encourage you to review this policy often.